The family of 58-year-old Southgate resident Kevin Sorrell has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the City of Ecorse and several of its police officers, alleging a chokehold used during a traffic stop left him on life support and ultimately led to his death. The complaint says the encounter started on Jan. 20, 2023, when officers pulled Sorrell over for a nonworking license plate light and escalated into what family attorneys describe as excessive force. The suit seeks damages and argues the department has a pattern of failing to properly investigate or discipline its officers.
What the complaint lays out
According to The Detroit News, the lawsuit claims officers forcibly pulled Sorrell from his vehicle, took him to the ground, and that one officer straddled him and applied a chokehold while others used pepper spray. The filing also says officers administered Narcan twice while Sorrell was unconscious, and that River Rouge police later found him not breathing and without a pulse. Family attorney Racine Miller told reporters the cause of death was listed as hypertensive heart disease and anoxic encephalopathy after Sorrell remained on a ventilator and died in September 2023.
Ecorse's legal history
Ecorse and some of its officers have appeared in multiple federal civil-rights lawsuits in recent years, according to court records. Public filings compiled by Justia Dockets & Filings show several suits naming the city and its officers. The new complaint cites that history as part of its pattern-and-practice allegations against the department.
Missing footage and the family's account
The lawsuit alleges one officer told another to switch off his body camera and that roughly six minutes of video from the encounter are missing. It also claims the only use-of-force report from the incident documented pepper spray, not a chokehold, according to the family’s filing. "He wasn't acting like a fool, he wasn't inviting the use of force on him," Miller told The Detroit News, summarizing the family's view of what happened during the stop.
What comes next
The wrongful-death lawsuit has been filed in Wayne County Circuit Court and will move into the civil discovery phase, where both sides can seek medical records, internal police documents and body-camera footage. If the complaint's allegations are supported by what turns up in discovery, the case could draw further local scrutiny of Ecorse's policing practices and internal review procedures while Sorrell's family pursues damages in court.
